Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Himself and the Ashram

The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo. Volume 35

His Life and Attempts to Write about It
On His Published Prose Writings

Passages from The Mother [5]

“Detect first what is false or obscure in you... then alone can you rightly call for the divine Power to transform you” [pp. 4–5]. Does “rightly” mean “it is the right way of calling” or does it mean “then only you have the ‘right’ to call”?

It means “in the right way”.

“If behind your devotion and surrender you make a cover for your desires, egoistic demands ...” [p. 3]. Does this mean “you use devotion and surrender as a means of fulfilling your desires and demands”?

Yes, practically it means that. I put it in that way so as to avoid suggesting that the devotion is altogether insincere and meant only as a cover.

12 December 1934